Hannah Waddingham interview: ‘Ted Lasso’

“We have a ‘Believe’ sign in our makeup truck that everyone taps on their way out,” reveals “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham in our recent webchat. She continues, “It’s something that I don’t think any of us lot realized we needed in our lives. You don’t know what you need until it runs itself headlong into your life. Now I can’t imagine life without it and its ethos.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

In its second season, “Ted Lasso” tells the story of the optimistic Ted (Jason Sudeikis) continuing to coach soccer team AFC Richmond in the UK. Last year “Ted Lasso” won seven Emmys including Best Comedy Series. Waddingham, who plays Rebecca, the stoic but caring owner of the football club, won herself for Best Comedy Supporting Actress. She explains “There can be very little written in a scene, then they’ll suddenly be a moment when Ted and Rebecca look at each other. They have a shorthand without even speaking. You just hope it will be there with someone. It’s been there with him from day one, Mr. JS.”

In the 10th episode of the second season, ‘No Weddings and A Funeral,’ Rebecca copes with the loss of her father. The powerful episode builds to a eulogy where she sings the viral trolling song ‘”Never Gonna Give You Up.”’ Waddingham reflects, “As a musical theater person you wanted to sound nice. But loving Rebecca as I do, and wanting to serve her, I said to Jason, ‘I’m not going to sing that in the normal sense.’ He said, ‘I want you to see this scene, go away and do what you want with it.’ It was such a privilege. I said it needs to be what we call ‘singspiel;’ it’s the thing of mostly talking it. She doesn’t know what to say at that moment but she’s constantly had this bloody song around from her mother. It’s almost like if somebody asked Rebecca after the event what she’d said, she’d go, ‘I don’t know’ So it’s not a song for me in my head at all.”

Waddingham reveals, “When we were filming the funeral episode my dad was having open heart surgery. My own life was being rattled and, of course, it had to be my dad. I didn’t think I would have either of my parents still on this plane. The night of the Emmys, for them to both see me when they have given so much in order for me to get there. My strength and my perseverance to come from my dad; and for my voice and my training come from my mum. For them to see that was something I didn’t think was going to happen.”